ZZ Top on holiday

🤘- metal

This happens easily for big successful organisations. Over decades a strong culture aligned with how they succeed forms. Once the market changes requiring a culture change, a seemingly invincible company suddenly stumbles. They simply can’t respond even if they what they should change.

Ex. Rolls Royce CEO stated this phenomenon well: culture eats strategy for breakfast.

The number of arsehole men is too damn high. Whenever I see or hear these stories my blood boils.

I think there is another aspect that is important: limit the blast radius. Shit inevitably happens when you create something new and complex, and when it does, you’d rather minimise the impact where possible.

The story of Nokia the company is long and meandering. Its roots go back to late 1860’s in the town of Nokia in Southern Finland, near the city of Tampere, from where they’ve gone through all sorts of businesses, including rubber boots and industrial capacitors to name just two. You might even find an old Nokia TV knocking about. The mobile handsets phase was in some sense but a blip in the story, although a spectacular one. I’m sure they’ll keep going in one way or another for a fair while still.